Bharti Airtel likely to name new chief for its African operations

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel is likely to name a new chief executive for its African operations by the end of the current fiscal, a person familiar with the matter said, as the mobile phone operator rings in changes to turn profitable in the continent.

The new CEO is expected to be from outside the company, the person told ET, adding that Manoj Kohli, the CEO of Bharti Airtel's international operations, is likely to move away from the day-to-day running of the continent's operations.

Kohli, who is currently also the joint managing director, is expected to play a more active role in the regulatory affairs of the company's global operations while continuing to broadly oversee its African operations, the person said.

Kohli, who is likely to relocate to New Delhi from Nairobi, couldn't be reached for comment. Another person in the know said that Jayant Khosla, who was heading Airtel Anglophone - which comprised nine of the continent's 17 countries - had resigned. Khosla couldn't be reached for comment.

Apart from Anglophone, the company's African operations are divided into Francophone and Nigeria, though each country also has a separate CEO.

A company spokesperson declined to comment.

Bharti Airtel, among the world's top four mobile phone operators, entered Africa in 2010 by buying Zain Telecom's African operations. However, the African business is still to make profits, recording a net loss of $106 million in the April-June quarter.

While announcing the company's quarterly performance in June, Kohli admitted that turning the African operations profitable is proving to be tougher than expected.

"There is a deep understanding within all ranks that Africa will have to be treated as 17 different markets and not one market simply with 17 different zones and the regulatory challenges vary across the 17 countries," the first person said. The company is planning to give more decision-making powers to country CEOs, the person said, a step which would allow the company to move more swiftly. "For instance, to change the tariff rates within 10% of existing rates and so on so forth."